WWE Women’s Wrestling Weekly: Superstars Reap New Era Benefits

Credit: WWE.com

The NXT Landscape is About to Shift

NXT and its United Kingdom counterpart will likely be looked over amid all the hoopla regarding the “new era” in WWE. That’s unfortunate considering how drastically these brands could indirectly be affected by the main roster changes.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Raw and SmackDown was the promise of new faces. Those new faces are going to come from NXT and NXT UK, which of course leaves those shows short on some roster members. That won’t be immediately reflected considering the weeks of tapings NXT films in advance, but consider the case of Lacey Evans, who was on a rocket ship ride to the top of the NXT women’s division. That’s a role the black and gold brand will now have to fill with Evans being moved to the main WWE roster.

It should be easy to compensate for the absence of Lacey Evans considering NXT’s vast amount of qualified talent (Mia Yim; we’re all thinking it) but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When you think about the feud currently in the works between Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, you’re going to draw the obvious conclusion that it could eventually lead to a confrontation between WWE’s and MMA’s versions of the Four Horsewomen. Does that mean Jessamyn Duke, Marina Shafir and NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler are next to be fast-tracked to Raw and SmackDown?

I have so many questions about the landscape of NXT in the months to come, but they’ll only be answered with time. One thing that’s a pretty safe bet, though, is that Rhea Ripley should be holding down NXT UK for a good long while as the Women’s Champion. This week Ripley successfully defended her title against Isla Dawn, who finally got to give us a good showing of how awesomely talented she is.

Let’s maybe not sleep on the NXT brands; As a result of this new direction for WWE I think both NXT and NXT UK will face some unique challenges in 2019 and be all the better for it.

It’s an understatement to say this was a monumental week for women in WWE, or even for wrestling in general. Sure, WWE’s most recent attempt at a soft relaunch might eat dirt in a few weeks, but it could also be the start of something great. I personally prefer to take the optimistic path – a road less traveled – and hope that this is just the beginning of positive changes to come, especially for women’s wrestling.